FamedKarma

Just to be clear here, MIDI is NOT audio - MIDI is a control standard. Therefore, if you get a MIDI-USB converter (I wouldn't, for various reasons that won't be discussed here), you wont actually get the sound of your Yamaha piano in your computer - you'll just be able to control virtual instruments (have a read about them, they're very powerful). You'll need to buy an audio interface (there are cheap ones to be had - google the M-Audio Fast Track), with which you can plug a standard TRS cable into. That's the only way you'll actually get your electric piano's sound into your PC, certainly not through MIDI.

You haven't really given a budget, but if you're willing to pony up for an audio interface and an XLR mic, there are a tonne of great condensor voiceover mics, the Rode NT1-A and SE x1 both have pretty decent bundles (especially the x1, with the reflexion filter). Neither of those mics will pick up the whole house, I've used both with decent success. If you're SUPER worried about directionality, have a look around for condensers with a hypercardioid polar pattern - they're often used to record toms on a drum kit, and will pick up ONLY what they're pointed at, no surroundings. Another option is the Shure SM57, the industry standard for affordable dynamic mics - cheap, works well, sounds good if you sit up close to it (doesn't look as cool/beefy as the nice condensers though). Basically, have a listen of audio samples of all the mics I listed, pick the one that you like the sound of most.

For Slick's gaming videos, it would be cool to post text versions of the videos too in a "review" format - I find things of that nature far easier to absorb when I read them, rather than when they're spoken about.

Sennheiser are actually a bit shitty. Genelec and M-Audio make good stuff in my experience.

FamedKarma was randomly generated by Xbox Live and I thought it sounded cool :)

Whatever xonar is in your price range

Haha I know that feel!

Herrrre we go Twitter: https://twitter.com/jessegwilliams7/status/315072297226625025 Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jesse.m.williams1

Surround in headphones/headsets is a joke. Spend money on 2 good drivers, not 7 shitty, tinny ones. Buy a good set of closed headphones and a Zalman clip on mic. I recommend anything from Sennheiser that fits your budget, but Audio-Technicia are cool too. Don't like Bose.

You'd definitely notice the difference with the sound card. For about $200, in terms of closed headphones, some Sennheiser HD380s should do the job. Also, use the Essence Audio Center to tailor your sound to whatever genre you listen to.

If you're unsure with sound cards at any price point and just want an enhancement without too much reading, just go for whatever Xonar card is in your price range (probably a Xonar DX for you). I'd stick with an internal card, external headphone DACs can be good but personally I couldn't stand the clutter and I just prefer internal cards.

I'm unsure if game reviews are wanted here, but I just wrote this in case you're interested. http://famedreviews.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/bittrip-runner2-review.html

Also for retro consoles.

Yeah, it was really good seeing someone from a hardware background on there. I don't really watch Paul's videos too often though lol.

Ouch. Looks like you're stuck with eBay. If you're lucky and someone bids higher than they should, you could actually make a profit; keep your hopes up!

I remember quite a while ago, both the members of the KBMOD team and Linus himself said that he would have an appearance on the cast in late 2012; is it safe to say this dream is dead? Or is a guest appearance from Linus still a possibility? It would be cool to see him contribute to their discussions, particularly because they aren't always 100% accurate with hardware info.

Weird. What are the rest of the specs of your machine? Your CPU, RAM or even (less feasibly) HDD speed could be bottlenecking what your graphics card is capable of. I'd definitely recommend staying on beta drivers regardless. Also, FC3 has a lot of weird settings that a lot of other games don't give to the user which often need to be set to pretty specific things for stability; for instance, your GPU max frame buffer should always be set to "1" for best performance. I can't remember anything else off the top of my head, but if none of that applies, I'll have a bit of a look around for you and see what I can find.

Diddy Kong Racing for N64, underrated as hell

I actually wrote a pretty lengthy review on it if you're interested. I think the extra content is worth it, but I'm fairly sure you can buy an upgrade after the fact if you are so compelled. http://famedreviews.blogspot.com.au/2012/12/far-cry-3-review-pc-spoiler-free.html

I'd go with something open-back if your situation allows for it. Entry level, go Sennheiser HD 558s or Beyerdynamic DT 990s. Could spend the extra and go for the Sennheiser HD 600/650, but it depends on your budget and how serious you are about it.

In my book, good headphone or speakers should be able to produce all frequencies well, where you should not have "genre optimize" headphones/speakers.This may be the case at the mid-range, but high-end headphones are often no better or worse than each other; just different. This is due to the fact that they are often engineered to a specific purpose, like how Beats are made to have crystal clear bass, but their highs are pretty average. This will be the case with any pair of Beats, even the super high end ones which cost a tonne. As such, it's not really possible to produce all frequencies SUPER well, but reference headphones do a pretty good job of staying clear and balanced. It just depends what he wants.

I'm fairly sure there isn't a hi-fi forum, so I decided that this was the closest. Sorry if there was a better option. I've just started getting into listening to my music on vinyl pressings instead of high fidelity audio, and I have been using a pretty cheap WGIT turntable for a couple of months. However, I've decided to upgrade to a Rega RP1 TT, since I want a better experience (especially with 180g vinyl, which my player seems to have difficulties with). Although I have decided on the turntable I want, I will also need a preamp with it, and I'm not really sure what people recommend; I'll be playing the audio through a pair of M-Audio 2.0 reference monitors, not headphones. If anyone has a suggestion, let me know :)

Nice post man. I agree with a lot of your ideas, but I also think a lot of the chat issues have to be down to the current mod team; like you said, they were basically inactive until post stream. Whether it's a case of requiring more regular mods, or the current mods taking a more hardlined approach, I think this is the first solution. Also, I'm fairly sure it's a function of twitch to be able to disable links; maybe if this was done to non-followers or something of that nature, channel spam would be reduced a tonne. Not sure if twitch has that sort of functionality though.

In terms of buying, my biggest regret is probably my Antec DF-30 case or my Xigmatek Colleseum CPU cooler. My biggest mistake was probably when I was building the PC, and I didn't mount the CPU cooler properly and it wasn't making contact with the CPU. Consequently, I sat there for about an hour booting and instantly overheating, causing a restart, and wondering what was going wrong. My friend ended up coming over and tightening the screws a bit.